Kingsway Villagers

Hello

I wonder if you could tell me whether there is a agreement in place with the local authorities for the collection of litter in Kingsway?

Upon walking to the post office last week, the amount of rubbish that is blowing the around the area is depressing. It does seem that most of it has either come from recycle boxes or rubbish bags which are left next to people’s bins.

However, even noticed that someone has been dumping rubbish bags on the land surrounding the balancing pond by the tunnel. Also the walkway between Halton Way and Woodvale is covered in rubbish that has been there for months.

I cannot recall ever seeing anyone walking around collecting litter, however I feel this is something that should be looked into further and if already in place needs to be more widespread or done on a frequent basis.

Hoping everyone had an enjoyable Christmas.

We noted that the Refuse/Recycling Collection of last week was very limited – this was due to the extremely difficult conditions of the roads. The council had to call-off collections beyond those roads which were gritted on the development for Health & Safety reasons.

I have been assured by Mr Martin Shield’s (Director of Environmental Services) that there will be a full collection this Friday with regard to: Black Bin Refuse & Green Bin Recycling Collections. Residents are being asked, if your recycling bin’s are full – then simply use bags with items kept separated, and these will be collected too.

The Rotary Club of Severn Vale are again organising collections of computer equipment on behalf of Cheltenham based charity, IT Schools Africa, on Saturday 8th January 1.30pm – 2.30pm at Tesco in Quedgeley.

Requirement:
Computers (Pentium 111 spec and above), Monitors up to 17", mice, keyboard, cables etc.
All equipment must be in working order.

Secure Data Protection:
Hard drives are wiped up to the standard of the US Department of Defence.

Contact:
For more information please contact: Andy Jarrett on 01452 883450 or president@severnvalerotary.org.uk or go to www.severnvalerotary.org.uk

See the full document here.

Freegle is a new UK-wide umbrella organisation, formed by experienced volunteers and members of the free reuse community.

Most Freegle groups were formerly part of The Freecycle Network. However, progressively since its beginnings, it became evident that Freecycle changed radically under our feet while we were working to continue its success. This created an untenable situation for hundreds of volunteers in the UK. After lengthy and patient negotiations with the founder of The Freecycle Network failed, Freegle was formed.

We are really excited to now be Freegle! All groups within Freegle belong to a truly grassroots movement that values and respects its members and volunteers. And in the process, we continue to keep usable items out of landfill. We are looking forward to welcoming new groups into the Freegle family.
 

How it works

Freegle is an email list hosted on Yahoo! Groups that allows you to give stuff away when you need to get rid of it but don’t want to throw it in the bin. Or save something from landfill by asking for it; perhaps someone has just what you need that they were about to throw away.

For example:

1. You have a washing machine you don’t need and may need to take to the tip.
2. You join your local Freegle group.
3. You post an OFFER on the list, seen by everyone who looks on the site or receives messages in their inbox (members get to choose whether to receive all messages or just view online)
   OFFER: washing machine (just off High St)
   Old and noisy but working washing machine available.
4. Interested members will reply to you privately.
5. You choose who you would like to give it to.
6. Between you, you arrange for them to come and pick up the washing machine.
7. It gets collected.
8. You’ve given away your machine with little effort, and you also got to meet someone new from your neighbourhood in the process.
9. Someone local to you who needed your unwanted machine can now use it, fix it or use parts for spares.
10. It didn’t go into landfill. Great for both you and our planet. Everyone wins!

Likewise, if you need an item you can request one on the list in the same way and if someone has what you’d like they will contact you off-list to offer it.

The group moderators will be happy to help you if you need any advice about any part of the above process.
 
 
If you would like to join Gloucester Freegle please follow the link below:
www.ilovefreegle.org/groups/south-west

Having recently attended the big park this morning, I was absolutely ashamed when I got there with my little child; the park was strewn with litter and the amount of graffiti evident within the skate park is not only offensive but is completely disgraceful.

I’m unsure if the litter was atypical of a Sunday morning but why isn’t this park being respected by the locals that use it? More to the point what was the point in installing a CCTV camera on the park, which is clearly not doing its job?

Editors Note: For more articles about ASB issues at "the big park" see:
 
Kingsway Community Walkabout: Results – (06/08/09)
Things that go BUMP in the night – (26/09/08)
Park Pranks and Kingsway Youths – (05/09/08)
Kingsway Park – Vandalism and ASB – (04/04/’08)
The Big Park – (03/04/08)
Kingsway Community Policing – (04/11/07)

Last week some irresponsible, anti-social persons dumped 2 bags of rubbish in my front garden! It wasn’t kids dumping rubbish, this was a deliberate act of fly-tipping of a couple of bags of rubbish in a couple of Tesco carrier bags – presumably their own dustbins were full, so they were looking to offload their rubbish on someone else. The bags weren’t just thrown into the garden, they had been deliberately placed there.

I contacted the Council and reported the fly-tipping. Apparently, when fly-tipping happens, the Council go through the rubbish left and, if they can find who dumped it (eg: by finding an envelope with an address on etc), they prosecute.

I suppose it’s only to be assumed that – with the new fortnightly waste collection regime, there will be some anti-social people who don’t understand recycling, fill their own bins and then look to dump their extra rubbish elsewhere, passing on the problem to other people! I’ve asked the Council what measures they intend to take regarding such miscreants and will report back.

In the meantime, I’m pleased to say that the Council collected the bags and – with some luck, will be investigating with a view to prosecuting the anti-social fly-tippers.

Watch out for it happening to you.